Hear the complete concert at matthewebel.net
As a bit of a teaser, I also just released one of the live tracks to the podcasting world. If you’re interested, check out Night Train – Live at FWA 2009 at matthewebel.com/podsafe.
I never really have a problem with being filmed during a concert… I think it’s great that people want to keep the moment going long after the show is over. Fortunately, most of my fans post their vids online when they’re done.
I debuted She Will Set You Free at FWA last weekend, and Marcus Noble was there to catch it. Check it out!
Last weekend was the best convention experience of my life. Without question.
Photo by Zschamm
Before I duck behind a cut to save people’s loading times, I want to remind everyone who attended to please tag your photos/videos etc. with FWA09 wherever you post them. I’ll be looking on Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, and other sites for evidence-gathering purposes, so please make your stuff easy to find!
If you’ve posted any pictures or videos of me in or out of costume, please tag them with Matthew Ebel or matthewebel. If you’re feeling nice, put a link to http://matthewebel.com at the top of the description. I always appreciate the traffic!
And now, on with the show…
Read More…
Here’s a little bit of web geekery for you… I want to share links on Facebook, but every time I do that I get the same link info no matter what blog post I’m linking to. How do I change that? The answer’s below the fold…
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I’m frequently asked, when new fans want to buy a track or album, “what method gives you the most money?” I’m touched that a lot of people want to make sure I get the most of their hard-earned dollars when they decide to support my music. The fact is, though, that I want you to pay the sales staff.
(Wait a second, he doesn’t have a sales staff, what is he talking about?)
Photo by Andyrob
If someone or some service is actually introducing you to my music, I want them to stay in business. I want them to get a piece of my good fortune. I want to reward anyone who is helping spread the word about my music, so long as they’re doing it legitimately.
So if you’re worried about the extra $2 per CD or 9¢ per track, don’t be. Please just do what you can to keep my sales people in business. If they’re making a living, then I’m making a living!
There is no greater threat to one’s career than playing to an audience that doesn’t want to hear you. A room full of strangers is much preferable to a room full of people that think you suck. It’s part of human nature to be vocal about that which we dislike, much more so than that which we love.
To put it simply, you’ll tell a couple of friends about something you really love, but you’ll tell the whole world about something that annoys you.
It’s like playing rap music in a country bar… If all you see is a crowd of wallets, you’re going to get beer bottles thrown at you. Before you start rapping, those people are just bystanders. Once you’ve given them a dose of something they don’t want, they become a negative PR force actively working against you.
This is the reason I do not sign people up for my email list that didn’t ask for it. I’ll send invites- ONCE -but if they don’t want my emails, I don’t want to send to them. My blacklist is almost as big as my mailing list. Why? Because each person I send an email to is remotely interested in my music. If they’re not, the last thing I want to do is annoy them!
Lately I’ve been receiving auto-DM invites to a music site via Twitter. One invite? Sure. Identical invites from many different people with no way to opt-out? Now I’m never going to sign up for that service. In fact, I’m writing a blog post about it because they’ve ticked me off. I am now a negative PR force working against them, all because they wouldn’t let me opt out.
The lesson? Don’t play rap to a country crowd. No audience is worse than the wrong audience.
Behold, the Myxercycle
We do tend to trap ourselves, don’t we? We build walls of technology so that we can make ingenious little windows like Facebook and Twitter and look out at the world.
Yesterday I was riding through the world at 25-30mph (40-50 kph) on my electric bike, the Myxercycle. It looked a lot bigger than it has for the past 5 months. Here I am, Monday morning, typing into my little window again, but at least now I know the front door leads to a warmer world again. Forget the economy, things are looking brighter simply because I can bike again.
Now availble on Pandora.com!
Why is this awesome, you ask? Because so many people these days find new music via Pandora. It takes artists, songs, and albums you like and finds similar music to put into a customized radio station just for you.
Now anyone listening to Ben Folds or Keane or other well-known acts may very well end up listening to two of my albums. I’ve already made new fans this way, and I’m glad to see they’re adding more of my inventory.
If you haven’t built a station yet, go to Pandora.com and set one up… your ears will thank you!
Photo by John Tlumacki
You see, this was all part of the Magic of Television™. A lot of my fans (you folks) are producers yourselves, making albums and podcasts and videos. As someone who is fascinated by how this stuff works, I’ll walk you through the assembly of a major-league TV show.
When I say we stood in line, I mean it. My room mate, Ronin, and I got there at 7:30am, about 90 minutes before I usually get out of bed on weekdays, and I didn’t audition for another 8 hours. That’s right, EIGHT. HOURS. Fortunately, it wasn’t all standing in line. Sort of like the way the Inquisition wasn’t all burning and screaming.
A while ago I had a young filmmaker ask my permission to use one of my songs as a music video project. He and his friends create films, practice martial arts, and have an incredible sense of humor. I’d say more, but I think the video more than speaks for itself…
My favorite part about all this? I’ve never met these guys. In fact, I’ve never been to the continent they live on. They just found my music and decided to create something awesome to go with it.
Check out more from Dead Star Film at YouTube.com/deadstarfilm or watch the Ninjery at YouTube.com/recklessninjasquad
This also made me realize that I need to start working on my own Ninja Beer recipe. Definitely high-gravity, something that’ll sneak up and kill you.
